Men govern nothing with more difficulty than their tongues, and can moderate their desires more than their words.

The supreme mystery of despotism, its prop and stay, is to keep men in a state of deception, and with the specious title of religion to cloak the fear by which they must be held in check, so that they will fight for their servitude as if for salvation.

We are so constituted by Nature that we easily believe the things we hope for, but believe only with difficulty those we fear, and that we regard such things more or less highly than is just. This is the source of the superstitions by which men everywhere are troubled. For the rest, I don

Many errors, of a truth, consist merely in the application of the wrong names of things.

In so far as the mind sees things in their eternal aspect, it participates in eternity.

I would warn you that I do not attribute to nature either beauty or deformity, order or confusion. Only in relation to our imagination can things be called beautiful or ugly, well-ordered or confused.

Nothing in nature is by chance... Something appears to be chance only because of our lack of knowledge.